


Time Enough to Try

by Karios



Category: Pieces of April (2003)
Genre: Candy, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Halloween, Pre-Canon, Protectiveness, Quintuple Drabble
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-01
Updated: 2020-10-01
Packaged: 2021-03-08 02:07:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 500
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26737849
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Karios/pseuds/Karios
Summary: How Bobby and April may have ended up hosting Thanksgiving.
Relationships: Bobby/April Burns
Kudos: 1





	Time Enough to Try

**Author's Note:**

> I've loved Pieces of April for years and have been meaning to write a fic so the fandom could be canonized.
> 
> Pieces of April is about the titular character's odyssey in cooking a Thanksgiving dinner for her estranged (and awful) family-of-origin. This fic is set on the Halloween before that Thanksgiving, and intended to be able to be read even if you haven't consumed the canon.
> 
> Thank you to ibble for betaing!

April and Bobby sat across from each other on the bed, a pile of wrappers and candy between them. They’d overbought, which was inevitable, given that parents were more damn scared of other people in a "bad" neighborhood than monsters these days. They had gotten less than a handful of trick-or-treaters. It didn't matter to Bobby really, more chocolate for them, but April was upset. She was curling in on herself, as she unpeeled and gnawed on a kit kat. She finished the candy with a final chomp and tossed the wrapper down. Then April pulled up onto her knees and leaned against Bobby's chest. She didn't say she was disappointed, but he knew her signs by now.

Bobby ran a hand through her hair. "There are other holidays. Thanksgiving. Christmas."

She peeked up at him. "Thanksgiving?"

"Little less than a month from now, centered on turkey, I'm sure you've heard of it," he teased. He was a beat too late to notice April was thinking about something.

"Hm," she said, more a sound than a word. She sat up again, sending twizzlers and sweet tarts flying. He'd be finding stray starburst under the bed well into the new year.

"What is it?" 

"Nothing." She punctuated the reply by tapping him in the gut with a toostie pop.

"Arbor day," Bobby offered, unwilling to give up that easy. "We're going to have ourselves the most kickass arbor day anybody's ever seen."

April laughed, and that was more like it. "Plant those trees!" She punched the air.

"You know it." They shared a smile and Bobby turned back to digging through the candy.

"Bobby?"

"Yeah?"

"How bad would it be if we have my family over for Thanksgiving?"

"Your family?" he repeated, uncertain because they'd been each other's family up until now.

"My mom, my dad, my siblings, maybe my grandma? Maybe we can cook? It's too much, isn't it?"

Bobby wanted to say that this idea sounded all kinds of foolish. The most complicated dinner he and April had ever thrown together was adding frozen peas to noodles.

And while April hadn't said much about the people she'd come from, Bobby hadn't liked a thing she had said about them. He knew they'd look down on him, ask all kinds of ignorant questions, and worst they'd hurt April something fierce. Bobby was fine with leaving them in the past.

April's eyes met his, wide and pleading. "I need them to know you."

This mattered, Bobby could feel that. "We can do Thanksgiving."

"Really? You'll help?" She looked so relieved that his heart ached afresh for her.

Bobby didn't know what help he could be, but he shrugged. "Whatever you need."

"Guess I need to call them, huh?"

"Hard to have them over if they don't know they're invited." He took her hand, squeezed it.

"Right. Right." April took a deep breath as she dialed. "Daddy? How would you feel about doing Thanksgiving here? There's someone I'd like you to meet…"


End file.
